1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to safety for firearms, specifically a device to securely block the chamber and barrel of a firearm to prevent its firing.
2. Description of Prior Art
Children and other people are injured or killed by accidental shootings from loaded firearms which do not have preventative safety devices and which have been carelessly placed or stored where children can gain access to them. It has been estimated that Americans keep 200 million handguns in their homes.
Inventors and firearms manufacturers are working to develop and market xe2x80x9cPersonalized Smart Gunsxe2x80x9d, ones that only the owner can fire. Smart gun inventions disclose a wide variety of safety lock systems, including thumb print recognition, ring or wristwatch radio controlled device, keypunch lock control and magnetic ring control. Gun owners are not enthusiastic about using smart guns, with batteries, electronics and magnets, because of the added cost and their questionable reliability for functioning properly and timely in emergency situations. Most gun owners who have handguns for emergency personal and family protection, will continue to utilize the existing conventional handguns with proven high reliability. With so many millions of conventional handguns out there, a comparative small number of xe2x80x9csmart gunsxe2x80x9d if successfully developed and marketed, will make an insignificant difference in overall firearm safety.
For existing firearms and those still being sold, numerous patented safety devices to childproof these firearms have been invented and some are now on the market. Most of these safety devices either prevent access to the trigger or prevent a cartridge from being chambered or fired. Most gun owners will remove, or not install, these safety devices on a firearm which is positioned for emergency use, since all known marketed safety devices require unacceptable delays to ready for use.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,392,552 and 5,561,935 both issued to McCarthy are examples of the xe2x80x9cclam shellxe2x80x9d type trigger lock, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,341 issued to Cervantes is an example of xe2x80x9cblockxe2x80x9d type trigger lock. A variety of locks, including key, dial roller, combination, illuminated digital and others are used to prevent removal of trigger safety devices.
One concern about trigger locks and trigger blocks is that a careless gun owner will leave a live cartridge in the firing chamber of the gun and a child might cock the hammer into its firing position. The child might then continue to monkey around the trigger or drop the gun possibly causing it to fire. Also, gun owners are concerned with the effects gun locks have on their sense of security. Today""s locks are mechanical devices requiring keys, combinations and other things that a person might not easily remember or locate in the middle of the night during an emergency situation. While some states mandate trigger lock devices for guns that are sold, these devices don""t solve the real problem of child proofing all handguns in a manner that the gun owner can, in an emergency, easily remove the safety device in 5 to 10 seconds in pitch darkness, i.e. to defend oneself and family
U.S. Pat. No. 4,136,476 issued to Hetrich, U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,753 issued to Beilman, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,971 issued to Chaney are examples of safety devices that have a dummy cartridge to block the chamber which is held in place by a key controlled barrel rod.
The barrel block safety devices that attach to a dummy cartridge in the chamber assure that a live cartridge cannot be chambered and fired. Generally a key rod fastens and unfastens the barrel block from the dummy cartridge. The amount of time required to find and use the key rod to remove the block from the gun barrel, remove the dummy cartridge and load the gun is not acceptable to the gun owner in an emergency situation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,294 issued to Knopp, U.S. Pat. No 4,512,009 issued to Mathew, U.S. Pat. No 4,569,144 issued to Thurber, U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,854 issued to Derman, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,211 issued to Hepp are examples of safety devices which block the barrel and firing chamber by use of rods and rod removal keys, cables and other required items.
The barrel and firing chamber blocker safety devices, including cable locks, prevent a cartridge from being in the firing chamber and for that reason have a safety advantage over the trigger locks and trigger blockers which allow a cartridge in the firing chamber. The disadvantage of the cable locks and other barrel blockers is their requirement for keys, combinations, special key rods and the like, which cause an unacceptable delay for the gun owner in removal of the safety device in emergency situations, where every second counts.
My firearm safety device in the parent invention, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/543,285 dated Apr. 5, 2000, is basically a barrel and firing chamber blocker. This patent application teaches a child proof locking means which requires no keys, combinations, electronic devices or the like, and can be easily and quickly removed by the gun owner in an emergency. In addition, my patent application teaches a secondary higher level, safety system, for non-emergencies utilizing an additional locking device. All other known barrel block safety devices that go through the barrel and into the firing chamber have a removal system requiring a key rod, a cable, or a digital padlock, which causes an unacceptable delay for the gun owner in an emergency situation. These devices, which are relatively complex mechanically and expensive are better from a safety standpoint than the trigger lock device.
The present invention is a firearm safety device for handguns and is designed to prevent accidental firing of a gun. The gun cannot contain a live cartridge in the firing chamber with the safety device in position; however, the safety device can be removed quickly, even in the dark, by following a proper removal procedure which is childproof
The firearm safety device for handguns includes a lock sleeve with an expandable end plug and a lock rod having a removable tip, which are inserted into the handgun barrel blocking the firing chamber. A knurled cap connected to the lock rod, threadedly attaches to a knurled enlarged end portion of the lock sleeve, preventing removal of the firearm safety device from the handgun. Since the safety device is able to rotate freely in its assembled position in the gun, any attempt to unscrew the knurled cap without holding the knurled enlarged end portion of the lock sleeve stationary will be unsuccessful. A child will not be able to remove the knurled cap since he or she will hold the gun in one hand while fiddling with the knurled cap with the other hand.
This invention is a continuation-in-part of my original firearms safety device invention as cross referenced above, and includes improvements based on development, fabrication and testing of invention models.
It is an object of my invention to provide a firearm safety device which may be easily applied to any handgun, has improved safety for children, and fulfills the gun owner""s requirement for simple and fast removal.
It is a further object of my invention to provide a firearm safety device which can be positioned on new and used handguns of any caliber and any barrel length using a minimum of different components in order to enhance production and marketing.
It is also an object of my invention to provide a firearm safety device which, when positioned in a handgun, prevents a cartridge being in the firing chamber. Many other firearm safety devices such as clam shell type trigger lock, barrel locks, and trigger blocks are not designed to prevent a cartridge from being in the firing chamber, and for this reason are considered dangerous. It is an accepted fact that dropping a loaded gun can sometimes result in its discharge.
Another object of my invention is to provide such a firearm safety device which is installable and removable entirely from the muzzle end of a gun barrel, without any scratching or other damage to the firearm.
Yet another object of my invention is to provide a firearm safety device of simple, rugged construction and with a high reliability of working properly.
Still another object of my invention is to provide a firearm safety device, which can be totally or partially made of tough plastic material, which can be inexpensively molded using current production machines and techniques.
A further object of my invention is to provide a firearm safety device which is childproof but can be removed from a firearm by an adult in 5 to 10 seconds, in pitch darkness by using only a small physical force.
Another object of my invention is to provide a firearm safety device that when positioned in a handgun will extend out of the muzzle of the gun barrel as an indication that the firearm safety device is positioned within the handgun and no cartridge is in the firing chamber.
Also an object of my invention is to provide a firearm safety device with a tamper evident indicator which will tell the gun owner at a glance whether someone has been monkeying with the handgun.
A further object of my invention is to provide a firearm safety device which can also be used as a gun barrel cleaning device.
Still another object of my invention is to provide a firearm safety device which is adapted to be used with handguns of various types, i.e. revolver, semiautomatic and others and adapted to all different caliber handguns with different length barrels.
It is also an object of my invention to provide a firearm safety device which in addition to being childproof, may include a secondary security system having a conventional locking device, to prevent removal by unauthorized older children and adults. The secondary security system has been previously described and claimed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/543,285.